Emergency cash for school facing closure over boiler

A WORCESTERSHIRE school which had warned parents it was so short of funds it may have to shut down over a broken boiler has received emergency funding to make improvements.

The head of Woodrush High at Wythall, Worcestershire, had written to parents warning it could partially close because of the heating crisis.

One parent had resorted to setting up a £60,000 crowdfunding appeal to cover the cost at the academy-run school. But in a fresh letter to parents, headteacher Natasha Rancins said the school had now received emergency funding from the Department for Education to pay for the first stage of an improvement programme.

A spokeswoman for the Department For Education said: “The trust has bid unsuccessfully on two occasions for Condition Improvement Funding (CIF) in previous years. Only applications which demonstrated a high project need, and were aligned with CIF priorities were successful.

“The school submitted a request for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) on November 13.

“We have agreed urgent funding for temporary boilers which can be installed quickly and the trust hope these will enable the school to remain open.

“We will continue to work with the trust to assess their full UCS request to replace the boilers, pipework and radiators.”

Headteacher Ms Rancins had told parents in a previous letter how a feasibility report in 2017 highlighted that the boiler and heating systems were “aged and in need of replacement”. But she said appeals for cash from a Department for Education pot had been rejected twice.

Parent Larissa Hobbs has launched the GoFundMe me page called Woodrush Children In Need.